Our honorees were introduced by members of the Open Seat Project, part of MYD’s commitment to get young people elected to office here in Manhattan.  This year over 90 young people collected signatures to get on the ballot!

We rallied the troops, we danced, we met incredible people, and most importantly, we showed that young Progressives are excited about the challenges that face us and ready to lead.  Each of our 5 honorees, as well as everyone in attendance, proved that when young people decide to change the world, anything is possible.  We are so proud of all of our honorees: Marvin Bing, Natasha Dillon, Ava Farkas, Lincoln Restler and Jose Luis Zacatelco.

For more incredible pictures, courtesy of MYD’s own Jon Reznick, click HERE.

Thank you to everyone who came out, it was an amazing event.  We hope you had as much fun as we did!

Photo: Glenn Oldhoff

Updated with recording.

One of our projects that exemplifies that strength and now has become a bi-annual tradition for MYD is the Open Seat Project. Beginning in 2009, The Open Seat Project was created to address our concern that hundreds of seats within the New York County Democratic Party structure remained vacant year after year. The position we’re specifically speaking about is that of county committee person: a two year unpaid term representing one of hundreds of election districts through out the borough. We decided that by recruiting members to run for these seats we would be carrying out our mission to strengthen local participation in the Democratic Party and ensure our leaders are responsive to the issues that are important to young people.

Open Seat Volunteer Dan Lewkowicz

The Open Seat team recruited members to consider running while simultaneously creating working partnerships with county leaders within the individual assembly districts that cover parts of Manhattan.  This year, recruitment for the Open Seat Project was especially focused on recruiting women, minorities and members of the LGBT community who are drastically underrepresented in elected office. We want the Democratic party — and ultimately, the leadership of our city, state, and nation — to be more reflective of the American electorate.

CC Candidate Neha Dewan

As of midnight last Thursday, July 14th, we concluded the main thrust of this year’s project and are happy to report that 90 people submitted qualifying petitions with their respective democratic clubs to the board of elections for county committee positions. Though County Committee represents areas as small as one or two blocks, our members who heeded the call and decided to run for this political elected position gained a wealth of knowledge about campaigning and the rules governing the election process.

75th AD Part A Female District leader Mary Dorman and CC candidate Lisa Marut

Another connection we hope will remain central with the members who ran is the relationship they forged with their local democratic clubs. The roughly 35 democratic clubs throughout the borough act as the grassroots voice of our party. The district leaders and club presidents who went out of their way to work with us have been great partners.  We have built a stronger working relationship with them on policy issues facing our city and state moving forward.

Throughout this process, our team learned a great deal about how little our members (and New Yorkers in general) know about our party and our electoral system. Our experience has solidified our belief that supporting civic education as a mantle our organization needs to continue.  We must remain committed to increasing the level of participation in the public discourse, not only of our own demographic, but of our friends, family members and co-workers. In the coming months, we’ll be working on putting much of the information we learned online.

But for now: we’ve been written up in the Times and we’re excited to congratulate the 90 new Open Seat voices who earned themselves “a seat at the table” — and we’ll be toasting their efforts at our annual “Young Gets It Done” Awards ceremony in late August. And as for the rest of you who could not or did not run this year…2013 is only a short time away. Will you run?

The bill co-sponsored by Councilman Oliver Koppell and 28 other councilmembers would require all employers in developments that receive more than $100,000 in city subsidies to pay workers $10-per-hour if the employer pays health care benefits, or $11.50 an hour if they do not. We’re encouraging young people to show up and call on their city council members to support this important legislation. With the administration’s economic development plan partially dependent on the growth of the service sector to meet the need for more jobs, the lack of regulations to ensure that they are fair-wage positions could contribute to the alarmingly growing gap between our top and lowest earners. Without this common sense legislation that has already been passed in cities like Boston, Los Angles and San Francisco, low-to-moderate income families will continue to struggle to meet the rising costs of living and as responsible citizens we should demand that our tax dollars are invested in development that addresses those problems. Like our fellow democrats at StoneWall, let’s demand that our city remains a place where good jobs can still be found by making your voice heard at the rally this Thursday. Come support the fight to make the living wage bill into law.

For more information or to find out how you can get involved please visit the homepage for the LivingWageNYC Campaign at www.livingwagenyc.org.

It was, in fact, the Kennedy Administration that did not understand. The Riders did not act out of the courage that comes from youthful bravado or a young person’s misplaced belief in her own invincibility. No, theirs was the courage — even at their tender ages —of people who are just fed up.

I don’t have much to add to this article.  It is both inspiring and infuriating, but ultimately, it is a stark reminder that young people can make a difference.

Read the whole thing HERE.

Is organic, local food really more expensive? Seems to me that right now instead of paying the farmer, we’re paying the hospital.

Hat Tip: MoveOn

The New York Times: A New Arab Generation Finds Its Voice
Escalating violence has tempered the regional euphoria that followed the youth-led revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. And yet, young people will continue to play an important role in the Arab Spring.